Naomi Dawn Musch

     Sometimes ministries fail to thrive simply because folks out there aren’t aware of their needs. Sometimes they flourish, but could be even more productive if more people knew about them. I’d like to share a ministry with you that has been increasing for seven years, but in the current economy has needs as well. In trying to spread awareness, I hope that you will pray for this ministry, its outreach and its needs.

     Living Stones News is a monthly Midwestern Christian newspaper, evangelical in nature, with a hard-copy readership of 40,000, and web hits exceeding 100,000 each month. The paper is distributed free of charge on the streets, in grocery stores, prisons, libraries, churches, and anywhere someone will allow a rack to be set up or have copies dropped off. It is staffed by Christ-loving volunteers of diverse backgrounds, ages, and experience.

     The focus of LSN is unique among Christian publications. It features the life-changing testimonies of regular people, folks whose lives were changed when they came to know the Lord. Over the past seven years, LSN has shared over 500 such stories; testimonies of freedom and healing through Jesus Christ from addictions, abuse, spiritual slavery, depression, broken marriages, loneliness, sickness, and just about every other kind of heartache and despair. All of these articles can be found on the site archives at http://www.livingstonesnews.com .

     They are stories of hope, healing, and deliverance through faith in Jesus Christ.

     Living Stones also features stories of God’s ongoing work through His people; how He is using regular folk to do great things for His glory. It shares the passions of missionaries, pastors, artists, athletes, business owners, and many others who want to use the gifts, talents, and careers God has given them to reach others with all the Good News of the Gospel.

     I hope you will stop over at the website and peruse some of the articles there. I hope you will tell others about them and that you will pray for the ongoing work of Living Stones News. I hope that if you find copies of Living Stones News in your area, you will use them like Gospel tracts, passing the paper on to those who may be touched and encouraged by the stories they read.

     LSN has needs. As I said earlier, the paper is staffed by volunteers. The editors, writers, proof-readers, photographers, website developer, distribution managers, and others have stepped away from their day jobs and other ministries to follow God’s call get the paper into the hands of folks who will be encouraged or grow by it, and perhaps even come to know the Lord if they never have. Funding has come primarily from ad sales. But ad sales don’t cover all the publication and printing costs which exceed $1300 each month. It has been in the vision of the founders to keep the ad space in the paper as minimal as possible in order for the message to remain first and foremost. So, that is the need. As long as God provides, either through ad sales or donations or whatever creative way He chooses to do it, LSN will continue, despite the downtrend in the newspaper industry.

     We at LSN hope that you will join us in praying for and supporting this ministry. Thanks for taking time to become more aware.

     http://www.livingstonesnews.com

     Bonnie Leon has once again taken the reader to America’s last frontier in her novel Touching the Clouds. In the story, Kate Evans is a young pilot living with the haunting memory of surviving a crash that killed her best friend. Determined to overcome the fears of her past and answer her heart’s call to find healing and adventure, Kate breaks off her engagement and heads to Alaska, which is not yet a state. Flying north in her Ballanca Pacemaker, she hopes to become an Alaskan bush pilot, despite the odds against her being a woman in a man's harsh frontier.

     Bonnie Leon always writes with authenticity. This book is no exception. You can almost see the pearly white caps of the mountains peeking out below the clouds, feel the icy blasts of winter wind, and hear the howl of the wolves.

     And Bonnie can build tension.

     That was one of the best things about this book. From the first chapter on I was in suspense about what was going to happen to this young woman. Every time she got in her plane and took off, every time she crossed a mountain range or headed out on a mail run, I held my breath. What was going to happen? Would it be this time, on this run?

     The characters were very much real. There was good layering. The romance wasn’t sappy but genuine. Bonnie didn’t let her emotions get ahead of her as she told her character’s stories; she held them back, and did a good job of keeping the reader turning pages, anticipating. As a writer, I found myself studying, asking , how did she do that? Sometimes as I'm reading someone else's book, I tell myself, here's where I'd do such and such. In this case, Bonnie's instincts were dead on. While at first I considered the pacing to be a bit slow, I later realized that it had done the job of building the suspense needed for this story. 

     The book had a satisfying ending, even though it seemed to happen rather abruptly. I would have liked the last page, the final scene to wind out a little more slowly than it did, but all in all, it was a great story, and I think it leaves readers with a hint and longing of what’s to come in book two of the Alaskan Series.

     The speed at which technology advances is nothing less than amazing. It’s mind-numbing in fact. It wasn’t that many years ago that the idea of web-based magazines (ezines) or ebooks was thought to be something that would never catch on. In fact, only a couple of years ago, authors that were launching into the ebook marketplace seemed to have little chance of really developing a following.

     Now all of that is rapidly changing. More and more ebook publishers are popping up all over the place, and they seem to have many returning authors, writers who have been satisfied with the results so far. A myriad of e-readers are cropping up too and advancing in their technology. I don’t own an e-reader yet. My laptop works just fine for downloading and reading books. But I’m just saying, the options are out there.

     This week I decided to make an investigation into the ebook world by submitting a couple of manuscripts to cyber-publishers. Who knows if they’ll be accepted for publication, but the point is, I think it’s time to jump on the band wagon. At the rate that this technology is careening along, I don’t want to be left behind without experiencing what seems to be a growing trend in our bold new green-thinking world.

     Today I am digging deep and holding my breath. I’m reaching down into the lake of floundering and trying to pull my motivation up from where I dropped it into the silt. If I can just reach it and get hold of it, I may be able to pull it to the surface and swim ashore.

     But the darn thing is heavy. Every time I get my fingers on it, they slip, and it plummets back into the mire where black clouds of distraction hide it again.

     Being a writer is like that at times. This just happens to be one of them. There are acres of clear blue for me to explore. A writing pallet as broad and wide and breath-taking as I could wish for. But I keep going under; and motivation, instead of being a skiff fleeting across the waves from crest to crest, is an anchor without a rope.

     So I’m telling you about it, hoping that in so doing it’ll be like taking a strengthening breath for the dive.

I read today that part of being a writer is to be stubborn and tenacious and committed to failure. That’s so true it would be scary if God hadn’t written it into my genetic code. After all, it’s not as though I could say, well, I’m done being a writer now; it’s hard and I don’t want to do it anymore. Writing is in my being. Stopping sounds like dying. So even though I’m feeling a bit stalled out against the tide right now, I’m committed.

     I’m going down now. I’ve been treading water long enough.

     Once again I’m about to do an interview—not giving an interview, mind you. That would be much easier for me. No, I’m on the question-asking end. I know that some people dread the idea of being interviewed. I, on the other hand, get completely bottled up about making that initial contact, meeting, and asking the questions.

     I’ve gotten to interview some amazing people in my life. It’s something I began doing over 30 years ago when I was in High School. I even won a state-wide award and two scholarships for feature writing. That doesn’t happen without learning to interview.

     Nowadays, I’m blessed to write features on several fronts, and one in particular calls me to step out of my comfort zone to do interviews. In the process, I try to help the interviewee feel at ease. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?

     So here are some tips if you find yourself in a similar mode:

• 1.) Don’t put it off. The biggest mistake I make is hesitation. I know when my deadlines are, and I tend to hold off on making that contact phone call until I’ve thought it to death. That only winds me up and rattles my nerves more. I don’t know why that initial contact is so hard for me. I’ve never yet met anyone who was unkind. Many of the wonderful folk who’ve picked up the phone on the other end are more nervous than I am. They are worried about how their story will be told. They are the ones who are really putting themselves out there into the public eye, not me.
• 2.) Script yourself. You’ll introduce yourself first, and possibly get an answering service, so have that initial introduction written out so that you don’t fumble. “Hi, this is Naomi Musch, the writer doing your story for XYZ Magazine (or – a writer who’d like to talk to you about an interview for XYZ Magazine). Sorry I missed you. I’ll try calling back later, unless you’d like to call me when you’re free. My number is 123-456-7890. Thank you!
• 3.) Plan Thoroughly. There’s nothing worse than going into an interview feeling unprepared. If you are going to meet a recognized community member or any personage whose name is known for business or other purposes, Google them. Read what you can about them. If they’ve written a book, read it. If they’re part of an organization, find out about it. Approach them as someone who already knows them at some level. You’ll be more confident and comfortable.
• 4.) Be friendly. Even if meeting new people is difficult for you, you don’t have to let them know that. Take a deep breath. Suck in your stomach and put a smile on your face. Shake hands and then let the breath back out. Relax. Want to meet this person. Desire to know them better. Be personable and demonstrate trustworthiness and caring. You’ll find that when you do these things, not only will your subject be more comfortable and candid, but you will be more at ease yourself, and you may actually build a new friendship. There’s nothing wrong with that!
• 5.) Think about what hasn’t already been asked. Some of the people you interview may have been interviewed many times before. They’ll have pre-conceived ideas of what to expect. What can you ask them that they’ve never been asked before? How can you dig a little deeper into their stories to see their heart?
• After I make the phone call or complete the interview, I always feel euphoric. I start to think of what a great story this is going to be, and how I get the privilege of telling it. Then I also feel a little chagrined. I still have all my appendages; no one has bitten them off. The party I interviewed is now probably one of my Facebook friends.

     So make the call. Ask the questions. Show compassion. Don’t let a little nervousness or Satan’s attempts to hold you back—well—hold you back.

     Write on!

Overview:

   Prairie romance meets edgy Christian fiction in Scattered Petals, book 2 in Amanda Cabot’s Texas Dreams series.

   The story starts out with a shocker. Was Ms. Cabot really going to go there? Yes, she was, and I was impressed with the way she handled the situation her character found herself in. There was a time when Christian fiction never dealt with such harsh themes as brutality, rape, and murder was referenced, but not often seen.  But I for one am happy that the venue has gotten more real, while at the same time handling such themes with delicacy. It reminds me of the way old movies handled violence and sex. We could understand what was happening without being exposed to imagery that would be stuck in our heads forever. 

   I enjoyed the book. I thought the characters had depth, and there were good twists and subplots to the story. Ms. Cabot has definitely created a community worth following in this series. Three and half stars!

Going Further:

   Ms. Cabot set the stage for dealing with the larger themes of forgiveness and moving on in the face of such horrific tragedy that an individual would be scarred forever. I appreciated that she didn't get so focused on the upcoming romance that the main character too easily got over what had happened to her and her family. It's very easy to rush characters into "a change of heart" that just isn't realistic.

   If we examine our characters' hearts and motives, and really get to know them not as characters, but as people with feelings and heartaches as deep as our own, then our own characters would evolve with greater depth and realism than what we often stumble upon in fiction. Ms. Cabot shows us that good writing takes it slow and takes it real.

     I, like most writers, often find myself pulled in ten different directions with my writing projects. At any given time I might be working on two or three articles, queries, a blog (or two), my fiction book manuscript, my non-fiction book project, my editing job for Port Yonder Press, or mentoring a young writer in my community or through contests and lessons on A Novel Writing Site.

     It even feels overwhelming to list all that. I also work a part-time job outside the home and home educate a soon-to-be high school junior.

     Before you starting patting me on the back and lauding my ambition, let me tell you that most days I flit around like a hummingbird from flowering project to flowering project, often not giving serious attention to any of them. To thwart my proclivity toward distraction, I’m working on a new schedule, an organizational plan to keep my mind from being lured here and there and never settling. Here it is; I welcome your input and ideas for your own organization process.

     I have only a short time for writing in the morning, usually an hour or less. But this is usually when I’m freshest. I try to hammer out as much as I can then. Some days this is in the form of journaling my plans. On others it’s by tossing out a few paragraphs for one of my blogs. I don’t usually delve into the heavy aspects of my book manuscripts during that brief time.

     In late morning I have a break between parts of my job for about an hour. If I can, that’s when I try to tackle projects that take an awake brain, but not huge globs of time. This might be cleaning up a rough draft, writing a review, or working on an article or chapter. Since my thoughts are still clear at this time of day, I can the make word count add up. I might also do serious editing during this time.

     By mid to late afternoon I fall into a vegetative state. I’m home from work and I’ve checked up on my homeschooler. Now I meander around the house checking my email and Facebook updates *chagrine*, sorting laundry, or staring into the freezer wondering what I can actually get to unthaw in time for supper. I wander out to feed the chickens. My kids and husband start returning home from their jobs. Boyfriends and girlfriends pop over. Chaos ensues. My writing time is shot.

     So, evenings, after supper clean-up and catastrophes of the day have been thwarted, I finally get to address my writing again. It’s usually 8 or 9 o’clock by this time. I’m starting to yawn. BUT, that’s the best time for me to read. I need to get away from demands of my own works-in-progress, and now I can look with an open mind on what others are doing. So I tackle some editing, read a novel I plan to review—jotting a few notes here and there—or do research.

     Notably, that doesn’t add up to a lot of writing time in my regular routine. I cram like a college freshman. But it adds up. When I see a day or time slot open up that gives me 3 or 4 hours of good, fresh writing time, I salivate like it’s a block of cheesecake rather than a pie-piece of clock time.

     If your schedule is broken up or full of outside intrusions like mine is, I suggest:

• Setting up a planning chart that works for your schedule. It could be: Mondays for freelance or non-fiction; Tuesdays and Wednesdays for a pet writing project like that novel; Thursdays for blogging; Fridays for catching up on stray ends; weekends for whatever calls to you.
•  Allowing yourself success in small chunks. Guilt is such a burden, and it doesn’t do anything to improve your writing or productivity except at the cost of life’s other important missions like raising a family.
• Journaling. Sometimes sorting your thoughts and projects will come easier if you can kind of “think out loud” in a notebook where you’re free to spew and brainstorm. It’s not the same as talking to yourself (haha!) because it’s there for you as a record. You might figure it all out in your head and in a quiet conversation over the kitchen sink, but don’t trust to recall. Memory fails.
• “And always with everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Ask God to guide your writing, your calling, your writing ministry as a whole. He will direct you so you won’t let burn yourself out or waste your gift. Let Him choose your projects for you, and you won’t find yourself exasperated.

     When it comes to prairie romance, the mail-order bride concept is always a draw. Hmm, how could a gal get herself into such a pickle? What could draw someone to want to head into the wild west and marry a complete stranger? These questions intrigued me, as they might any romance reader, Vickie McDonough must have asked herself the same thing when she penned her new book from Barbour Publishing, The Anonymous Bride. Her answers made the book a galloping read.

     At the heart of the story are ex-cavalryman Luke Davis and his one-time sweetheart Rachel Hamilton and her little girl. Rachel jilted Luke eleven years ago and married his best friend instead. Now Luke has returned to Lookout, Texas as the new town marshal, and he realizes that the bitterness he feels for her still runs deep, even though she’s a widow.

     His cousins, on the other hand, aren’t so sure he’s over Rachel, and they devise a scheme that’ll either get them back together for good, or will have Luke married to someone else. The next thing you know, there are not one, but three mail-order brides coming to town, and a fourth yet to show. A contest for Luke’s hand ensues, but it’s an anonymous bride’s competition that really heats things up.

     The Anonymous Bride was a romp to read. I especially like the way Ms. Mcdonough writes the extra characters. The cousins were my favorite. Their dialogue is crisp, witty, and real. The girls coming as brides each had remarkable stories of their own. I found their situations believable – enough so that I would’ve considered being a mail-order bride myself if I were in their shoes. And, there’s an outside threat that keeps the reader wondering, too.

     Spiritually, the author was committed both to the tale and to showing the characters’ struggles with faith and forgiveness. Mostly this works, but there was a place or two where I felt that the spiritual battle was more tacked in than an indigenous to the story.

     The only other criticism I had was that I felt like Luke Davis agreed to his cousins’ schemes too easily. Even though the mayor was pressuring him to choose a wife for his job’s sake, I had a hard time thinking that a tough, good-looking man with Luke’s life experiences would agree to do it. But then, maybe there’s plenty that would.

Still, fiction lovers have to have a willingness to believe, and despite these minor details, the story was fun and fast reading. Carly Payton’s character as one of the “brides” was an especially good twist. You’ll have to read it though, to see why!

     3 ½ Stars for The Anonymous Bride, first in the Texas Boardinghouse Series.

I have huge respect for editors.  Editors play the roles of sharpener, wordsmith, and even psychologist. They work against deadlines. They've their own reputations to consider in this ever-tightening industry, so they don't want to present a writer's work that's less than gleaming.

Ever since becoming an editor for a shiny new publishing house myself, my respect for what they've been doing all these years has deepened. Editors bear a weight of responsibility that's, well, trepidatious anyway. That's how I feel when approaching a manuscript. I know that author is hoping for insight, ideas, and also a pretty good dose of mercy.

As an editor, and especially as an editor who is also a struggling writer, I'm acquainted with the heart and soul going into the stories I'm asked to supervise. The last thing I want to do is offend my authors by making any light or caustic remarks about a line or a scene that they've likely sweated over for days. Yet, at the same time, I need to be firm when I sense a misstep or wrong direction for the manuscript. I need to offer critique that is necessary, even if it may be hard to take (as well as to give). I need to hold high standards on behalf of my publisher, even if the author quails.

All that said, the same is true for the author who diligently self-edits. We cannot be so in love with our words that we aren't willing to let them go. We have to be able to look at our manuscripts with the objective point of view of a reader who doesn't know what's coming, and ask ourselves, "If I were them, would I care?"

We need to sharpen our grammar. We need to be willing to take advice. We need to be widely read. We need to develop thick skins, or at least rub a little oil on our backs so that criticism runs off like water and puddles at our feet where we can look down into it and see if its reflection is true.

Editing, self or otherwise, isn't for the cowardly. It's for those who are willing to boldly go forth with red pens poised, and to face off with characters, scene, and structure in such a way that only the fittest survive. 

     If anyone thinks writing is a painstaking process, wait until they try getting said writing published! Talk about a slow and agonizing process. Definitely not for the faint of heart. But when it does happen, it's worth the wait. Will it fulfill us? Probably not. Nothing outside of Heaven will. But it does offer that sense of closure we hope for.

     Lately, when I've been in my car with the radio on, I've heard an advertisement running for Living Stones News, one of the midwest's premier and growing Christian newspapers. It's a pretty spiffy-sounding advertisement. In it they talk about the monthly features. "This month, read about a Pilot, a Plane, and a Purpose..." they say.

     Hey, wait a minute. I wrote that story!

     There's a weird sensation--hearing that on the radio. And lest I sound boastful, that's not what I mean. It's kind of a surreal thing, is all. And it just makes me feel like I'm connecting to other people out there, Christian or not. That maybe there's an unseen ministry, Spirit-things that could be happening which I'll never know about until I'm in Heaven.

     And that's not all.

     In March I received a copy of Terry Burn's new book The Long Road Home. There, right inside on the same page as the publishing and copyright information, is my name listed as a co-editor. Wow. Weird again.

     There's another book coming out this summer that I helped to edit, and now I'm working soley on a project with an author for his release next year. I've been made a full editor at Port Yonder Press. Talk about surreal!

     Added to these are the article which was accepted for the fall issue of Home School Enrichment magazine, another article coming out this month in Living Stones News, and most exciting on a deeply personal level, continued correspondence with the editor at Crescent Moon Press about my novel "Trevelyan".

     So, I'm counting my blessings, doing a re-cap of the past month and realizing that sometimes all that effort and waiting pays off in bundles. I think I'll always be a little weirded out seeing my stuff in print or hearing it spoken of. But it sure does reaffirm my desires.

     If you're a writer, or if you paint, quilt, sing, sculpt, weld, design, build...whatever your hand finds to do as a creative outlet...count your blessings big or small. I'll bet you'll be weirded out too.